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Taking on homelessness

LIRR leader, a Wantagh resident, awarded for efforts

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Homelessness is a problem at train stations across Nassau County’s South Shore. Patrick Gerakaris, the manager of the county’s section of the Babylon Branch of the Long Island Rail Road, wanted to do something about it.

Gerakaris, of Wantagh, oversees stations from Rockville Centre to Massapequa Park. Over the years, he realized that the LIRR’s policy in dealing with the homeless simply wasn’t working. Metropolitan Transportation Authority police, by enforcing the no-loitering law and asking homeless people to leave the station, were doing nothing to solve the problem. “When they move along,” Gerakaris said of the homeless, “where do they move to?”

For example, he noted, if a homeless person was asked to leave the Wantagh train station, he would likely go to the library. A few hours later, the library would call the police to get him to leave, and he would be back at the train station.

“It’s a cyclical issue,” Gerakaris said. “We wanted to break that cyclical problem. We wanted to address it in different ways. We needed to come up with a way that we could address this in a compassionate way.”

Salvatore Arena, a spokesman for the LIRR, said that Gerakaris has always been a strong advocate for customer service. Last year, Arena said, customers, along with LIRR personnel and MTA police, took notice of an increase in homeless people in many LIRR station waiting rooms. Elected officials at the state and county level called on the railroad’s leadership to develop a strategy to address the problem.

“Eager to improve station conditions, Patrick requested the assignment and embarked on his mission to develop a strategy that would be both effective and compassionate,” Arena said. “Patrick’s vision was to shed additional light on Long Island’s homeless epidemic, but also to bring change to how local government entities facilitate services to homeless clients. He continues to work at removing the red tape and barriers that create challenges for social workers, public administrators, and local law enforcement agencies.”

Award-winning actions


It was the plan that Gerakaris put together that recently earned him the Leonard I. Saltzman Unsung Hero Award from the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless.

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